After Hurricane Milton left a trail of destruction across the southern US state of Florida in October 2024, an image of an amusement park inside an upside-down building was shared in Korean-language social media posts that falsely claimed it had been flipped over by the storm. Google Maps street imagery from as early as November 2007 showed the tourist attraction in the city of Orlando with the same facade.
“The US hurricane situation,” read a Korean-language post shared on Naver Cafe, an online forum, on October 14, 2024.
Attached to the post is a screenshot from a video posted on Instagram, with overlaid English-language text that reads “Everybody please pray for Orlando” and overlaid Korean-language text that says “No way”.
Underneath the screenshot is a Korean-language caption that read: “The hurricane flipped that heavy building over.”
The post is referring to Hurricane Milton, which barrelled through Florida on October 9 and October 10, killing 16 people and causing an estimated $50 billion in damage (archived link).
The same image was shared alongside similar claims in other forums, including Mania, Ppomppu and DC Inside.
Despite the image being shared in these forums under the headings “Fun”, “Humour” and “Comic Gallery”, comments on the posts suggest some users thought the image depicted genuine damage caused by the recent hurricane.
“Wow, it must have been so strong that it’s completely flipped over,” read one comment.
Another said, “Oh my, is this even possible? I really hope the damage is not too severe.”
Local media reported that Milton knocked down traffic lights and street signs in downtown Orlando, but the image circulating online does not show damage caused by the storm (archived link).
Orlando attraction
A reverse image search on Google led to the website of WonderWorks, which describes itself as a science-focused indoor amusement park with six locations across the United States, including Orlando (archived link).
All of the parks feature the “upside-down building” motif.
The image circulating online matches with Google Street View imagery of the park’s location in Orlando — with the earliest available taken in November 2007 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and Google Maps Street View of the same location from November 2007 (right):
According to a post on the official Facebook page for WonderWorks Orlando, the attraction opened its doors for the first time on March 4, 1998 (archived link).
The attraction also announced on Facebook it was closing early on October 9 because of the anticipated impact of Milton, and that it reopened on October 10. There is no mention on the page of the attraction sustaining any damage.
A search for the Instagram handle visible in the falsely shared image led to the original video, which was posted on October 11 (archived link).
The video is captioned, “Imagine being a tourist and seeing this for the first time after the hurricane” followed by a laughing emoji.
Comments on the post also suggest that users understood it did not show a building that had been upended by the hurricane.
AFP has debunked other misinformation surrounding Hurricane Milton here.
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